3.16 THE INDIAN STBUGGLE FOE FREEDOM

Government, provided that the Party refused to have
anything to do with the present Bill, was to send out
a small representative committee charged to negotiate
with India for framing her own constitution by means
of a constituent assembly. He agreed with Major
Graham Pole that India herself must frame her own
constitution and it would then be for the Labour
Government to give effect to it through a simple
legislative enactment.

(The Hindu, March, 1935.}

2. British Press on the Bill:

The House of Commons opened its discussion of
the India Bill in presence of the fact that Indian
opinion with an unexpected approach to unanimity
has already rejected it. It is not yet known how the
vote in the All-India Legislative Assembly will go.
Probably it will not be dramatic and it may even at
this historic moment reflect the wretched communal
jealousies that divide Indians. The facts however are
the/Be. The Congress Party stands for the unqualified
rejection of the entire scheme. So does the extreme
Hindu Left Wing which insists on emphasising its
special dislike of the Communal Award. Together
these two, • with a few Sikhs and Moslems of " Con-
gress" colour, constitute a majority of the elected
Indian members. The Moslem view as voiced in the